Archive for 2007

Notice anything different? Yup, we got a new domain name! Curtosey the beautifully written yet criminally unreleased Down On The Farm. And yes, I know it’s twatted up the non-news pages, but unless one of you knows how to define a php define(“VARIABLE” /location) type thing globally from a single file, then it may be that way for a couple more days… Anyway, as the news is working again, here’s some more interesting stuff Davey just let me in on…

Davey MacManus will be a guest speaker at the Building A Business On ‘Free’ seminar on November 5th. Also attending will be record execs, music website owners, game designers and copyright meanies to talk about weather it’s “viable or indeed advisable to give music away and if so, how can it be done in a way that doesn’t compromise artists’ income, integrity or longevity?” Best of all, it’s free to attend; just check the website for details on how to register first, then go along and grill Davey on why there’s so many great songs they still haven’t given away free.

Seems like a hot topic lately so here is where you, your friends and your musical colleagues can find all The Crimea’s UK chart positions: Zobbel.de lists everything from the second (well… 3rd) LWOA release at 31 to the 2nd Tragedy Rocks release at 196. Just scroll down the page ’til you see the band’s entry.

Radiohead eh? They release a free album and you’d think it had never been done before. Strangely I’m not the only person to be interested in anyone noting otherwise; Davey himself wishes to point you all in the direction of Times Online’s industry critique titled The Day The Music Industry Died which, in a nutshell, says “Earlier this year another rock band, the Crimea, did the same”.

More impressive is Q4 Music’s piece on “5 moments that changed music”. Yes people, along with Led Zepplin being tight fisted, Levi removing a top, Mariah Carey following with the pants off EMI and Gnarls Barkley being, well, Gnarls Barkley… The Crimea’s Secrets Of The Witching Hour free download release is apparently the 5th most important event in music history. Go figure. And hit more for the full 2 paragraphs.

The big boys Sina.com.cn have a fittingly large Crimea video on their site featuring the band’s 2007 Midi Festival performance in China. That’s the one without Julz. Who played with the at Chinese Pop Festival btw, have I been gone that long? Anyway, it’s 15 minutes long and has so many tunes crammed in I’ve already forgotten what they were. An alternative copy is at Tudou.com if you need it.

Two more Midi vids can be found at Mofile.com – Man and Loop A Loop, though they’re much lower quality mobile phone clips.

And if you still wanna check em out for real: gig details below. I’ve no idea who’ll be on guitar for them, but I heard a rumor a while back that made me wet myself. I have a good feeling it may just be Davey though. Don’t be too hard on him…

Crimea lead singer Davey MacManus was interviewed on Radio Five Live last Wednesday by none other than the band’s biggest fan Colin Murray. He was standing in for Simon Mayo and had an in-studio debate with members of the press and music industry on the effects of giving away music for free. There’s an excellent writeup of the show on the New Music Strategies blog but if you just wanna get down to listening, you can still listen again to the whole show (starts at 2 hours in) or download the slightly edited discussion in MP3 format from this podcast page. It’ll all be gone by tomorrow though so I’ll try to upload the stuff here asap.

Davey was also interviewed by Pop Matters on the band’s history and free album. Billy Corgan fans stay well away.

Also known as Kernel Krok, Davey’s resurected his solo career and should be playing the Abbey pub in Kentish Town on September 15th as part of the Abbey Village Fete, further details will follow I’m sure. This follows an apperance by him a few days ago at the Trans 2007 festival in Belfast.

The August edition of The Fly magazine features a review of the band’s show at the Borderline last month. Pick one up for free at your local indie music store of Fly venue, or just check it out online.

And one more place mentioning the album is GoingWare who link to it on a page about free legal downloads.

Huh. Not content with stealing my thunder as official site, some fool has gone and made a post there so informative and obscure the likes of which are hitherto unseen outside of inaudible.co.uk.

Yes, the Victoria line is down! Tube fans lament, while attendees of the Crimea’s Brixton Windmill gig tomorrow can get the 133, 159, 59 & 333, and “virtually every bus [that] goes from near Oval to Brixton”. Apparently it’s only 10 mins away, unless it gets jacked by some no good type. But only I’m that unlucky.

PS. they play at 4pm, doors 2.30pm. Hot tip: Get pissed, fall asleep outside, then wake up tomorrow around the same time for a BBQ and Abersytwyth’s 2nd finest export The Hot Puppies.

Sorry sorry sorry. It flooded. Not here like but any excuse’ll do… Just as you get used to the Crimea actually keeping the same line-up for longer than a year, Andy ups and leaves. Well good luck to you Mr, but who’s gonna join up next? Well watch this space, as I have a strangely psychic knack of predicting new Crimea members. Now, who else thinks that one from The Go Team! would fit well?

Ok, news. The Beijing Beat blog on Claus.com has a long story on the band’s first trip to China. Apparently they’re going back for more in September when they play the Pop Festival.

Free album stories haven’t gone away; the News & Star site features an update on the release with comments from Andy Stafford. Prospect Magazine have a quick mention in a wider free music article, the Independent have an even quicker name drop and the Guardian give em two lines. Though none of them are as pesimistic as Sweeping The Nation’s take on events though.

I think this stuff from La Burroteca is written in Spanish. Theres a donkey. And a pic of LWOA. I know no more…
Gig reviews now, and Dr Alex Hale III (yeah, sure…) was so impressed with the band’s Modest Mouse support that he popped along to see em headline at Birmingham’s Bar Academy too.

Crocketts fans. There are good things acoming. Very, very good things. Hopefully. If you value your crocketty fandom one bit, then keep checking this site throughout the coming months. You DO NOT want to miss this news. Can’t say owt more, I’ll get bollocksed for this much…

It could’ve been made for em, eh? Not quite so good as Joe’s T’s but hey, we can’t all be graphic design geniuses. Thanks to BoingBoing for the link and Slouching Towards Bethlehem for the original post.

If you spot any errors or suchlike in the website, esp. the blog, then please leave a comment (hopefully they work again) and lemme know. Moving hosting provides is sooo much fun . But hopefully ’tis finished now, so on with the news…Update: Hit more for a current buglist, they’ll be fixed asap.

Sorry for the prolonged absense. New menu bar? Meh… Here’s some new music out and about that you must rush down to your local almost-in-administration record store and pick up for a discount price. Like two copies of Nintendo Fallacy for £2 each

The new 7″ vinyl only single from Midasuno, “Don’t Drive Faster Than Your Angel Can Fly”, is out now and available from HMV in a limited edition signed version. Someone cocked up though and it DOES NOT feature The Crimea’s very own Davey MacManus as planned. I’m assured he will be making an appearance on the soon to be released Songs In The Key Of Fuck album.

This next one is the greatest record I’ve heard in a couple years. My Disguise is a mini album released by Welsh indie band Halflight. Yes they did feature Owen Hopkin on their first release. What… you wanna hear it? Oh hear you go then: Halflight – Where The Pins Drop. Bear in mind that the new album blows it to hell. If “When We Danced” is not the greatest song I hear all year I’ve been playing far too much Ash.

Aberystwyth favourites The Hot Puppies have plenty of new stuff out, including a collection of old singles and a brand new one too. A browse around their site should tell you more than I can.

Here’s a vid of stuff by my second favourite Austrailian artist Lecia. I’m told the drummer only learnt the songs the night before and apparently the stuff sucks. I’d hate to think what that says about my musical taste cos only Julz is better than this. New album out soon too. Maybe I should just go back to the Club and Tim Wheeler.

Ahh I knew there was something I were missing… Crimea chums, gig support, and the only band I’ve ever seen get a 0 / 10 review (and that takes bloody effort, they’re no Hadouken but give em a break eh?), Swound! have just released their new single Disco Siberia. No sign of Crimea favourite If A Shark Stops Swimming but there’s plenty more to listen to on MySpace. And they have better t-shirts than you.

Now please excuse me while I switch hosting / servers. No updates / comments while we move please…